Review – The Ballad of Gay Tony

Liberty City is back, but put aside the melodramatic world of the immigrant story and do away with the grit and grime of the biker gang. This time round it’s all about the glitz and the glamour. But will Liberty City go out with a bang or will it fizzle out and rot on the curb like a bad hangover?

The game starts of from one of the most memorial moments in GTA4, the bank heist. You take the role of Luis Lopez, a man with a colourful past, however now trying to right his wrongs by going straight (not in the sexual way) and making it to the top without drug pushing or illegal fighting. Luis is Gay Tony’s right hand man, while Tony is a very successful night club owner and entrepreneur, he does tend to stray off course with what’s right and wrong. Luis’ constant battle to steer Tony in the right path away from his coke snorting friends and bad choice of boyfriends is a convincing act. One that runs through the story with some truly enthralling scenes which drives you to find the conclusion.

One thing that GTA4 gets slack for is repetitive missions. When playing as Niko a lot of the missions were very grounded and the line was blurred on what is realistic and what is fun. It seems this time round Rockstar has thrown any sense of realism out the window. The missions now vary to the fun, the challenging and the outrageous (making a get away from a driving range in a golf cart is something not to be missed). The difficult missions are no longer a chore because of the mid-mission checkpoint system. This was introduced in the first DLC pack (The Lost and Damned), though now they seem know exactly where you’d want to start from. Rockstar has also addressed another problem that the GTA series has been dormant in, which is replayability. With each mission you finish you will be given a mark on how well you’ve done, along with a list of targets. These targets include: headshot counts, accuracy, player damage and so on. Once you have completed the game you can go back by using your in game cell phone and select the mission you want to play. The plus side though is that around 90% of the missions are fun enough to want to play through them once or twice again without having to start a brand new game or going back to an old save. This makes up some what for lack of any multiplayer.

There are certain things you expect when playing a new expansion in Liberty City such as: new music, new weapons and new vehicles. The whole tone of the game has been changed, part of that shift in tone can be placed on the colour scheme of the menus and HUD, but for the most part it’s the music. The new additions to the music fit perfectly with everything you associate with the night club scene (gay or straight). Modern dance music to camp 80’s classics make their way on the dance floor and it’s impossible not to sing along to it when no one is watching. The electropop may not be to everyone’s taste, but it doesn’t mean that the overall message doesn’t dazzle all the way through.

From the first trailer of Gay Tony they’ve always teased a new helicopter. Air combat was never an easy feat in GTA so packing a Heli with a machine gun and missile launcher could of been shadowed if the air controls weren’t addressed, luckily they were. The new copter is fast and fun, but I wouldn’t say that flying the new helicopter and aiming it at your desired target is an easy task; with the inclusion of unlimited ammo, who cares? Just blast away to your heart’s content. The NOOSE is another lovely addition to the palette of destruction. An easy way of describing the NOOSE is calling it a compact tank. Anyone that loved the GTA 3 days of jumping in a tank and knocking cars over as if they were cardboard boxes will feel right at home.

Aside from the main missions there is a lot to do. Luis’ friends (who don’t call you every five minutes to play pool) help you along with Drug War missions located around the map. The missions sometimes can repeat themselves but there is a objective to beating them. With every 10 you complete, a new weapon unlocks at your apartment. One flaw of this is that the weapons are much easier to come across if you just play the main story. Bass jumping plays a big part in Gay Tony, it seems that Luis can’t get enough of taking to the skies in the main missions as well as for just the hell of it. The bass jumping side missions consist of Luis jumping out of a helicopter or very high buildings, landing on a target or onto a moving vehicle. The skydiving mechanic works well and really shows the scope of the GTA4’s engine. Other side missions include random friends which you meet around Liberty City, these include a mix of colourful characters and a truly jaw dropping moment. Regardless, the missions themselves are nothing more than escorting your new found ‘friend’ from A to B.

There are mini games such as: drinking champagne and spraying it over women, getting your groove on and doing door man duties; which may be rewarded with some casual sex (as one does). It’s no surprise that these mini games are there. Without them the nightclub sections would seem shallow and disposable, even if all they offer is a nice distraction.

Rockstar has never been shy of showcasing how far they are willing to go when pushing the envelope, however, with GTA4 going with moral ambiguity, it would seem that some of the magic was lost. It feels like now Rockstar has just thrown everything in the pot and let you have fun. From sticky bombs to tanks, auto shotguns to gold Uzis, base jumping to an overpowered helicopter; it’s all there. But adding all this action does come at a price. The players sluggish movement and cover system seems to drawn itself more attention. Perhaps it is because Rockstar have done such a great job polishing many of the games issues, this seems to be the games only drawback, be it a minor one.

Closing Comments

If you think you’ve taken away everything you can from Liberty City then think again, Gay Tony is innovative, frantic and boisterous. Rockstar’s display of tweaking missions and addressing deprived friends is a much needed addition to the GTA series. The characters are well drawn without subjecting to stereotypes and the side missions are introduced without being shoved in your face. Gay Tony is easily worth its value, the grandeur and poise shines through. Fans of the series should not miss out.

Tags: GTA GTA 4 Mike Chinn Sandbox The Ballad of Gay Tony The Lost and Damned